The Early Days
by Hattori Hanzo
Summary: Shows some of the Deadly Vipers' assignments before El Paso. Incomplete. Warnings: violence, strong language. CHAPTER 2 UP!
1. Cottonmouth

This is my first action story, my first multi-chaptered story, my second story and my second Kill Bill story (yes, the first one was a Kill Bill fic too P). The first few chapters will be about O-Ren, the next set of chapters about Elle, the third set of chaps about Vernita, and maybe I'll write a few about Bill and Gogo (yes, I know she's not a Viper. But I love her). I most definitely won't write anything about Budd. Why? Because I hate him.

The first chapter isn't very violent, but it'll get violent soon. That's why this fic is rated M.

O-Ren walked quickly toward the house, her black outfit easily camouflaging her in the darkness. She jumped the wall surrounding the property and ran silently toward the mansion, sheathed katana in hand. She walked around the large stone building and looked for an open window, knowing that were she to open one herself, she might alert someone.

The assassin was able to find one, and quickly jumped through it. She was in the kitchen, which was rather large, with white tiles covering the walls and floor and metal tables inside the place. There were several ovens, cabinets, refrigerators and freezers, used by a great number of servants.

She walked slowly toward the door, knowing that if she ran, her shoes would make noise when they hit the ground with each step. The woman approached the door and slowly pushed it open just an inch, peering into the dining room. She found it empty, but through the arc connecting the dining room to the entrance hall, she could see two guards. One of them quickly stepped out of her line of sight.

The girl smirked, slowly and quietly unsheathing her sword. She entered the dining room and crouched, hiding behind the table and the chairs, and moved quickly and silently towards the hall.

She hugged the wall and peered into the adjacent room. One of the guards was looking out the window, distracted. He was only a few feet from her. She quickly advanced towards him and plunged the sword into the base of his skull. His body fell back, but she held it and lowered it to the ground.

She looked around her and saw the other guard in the distance, walking in her direction. Sheathing her sword, she grabbed the dead man by the armpits and dragged him into the dining room, then into the kitchen. She left the body under a table and carefully went back into the dining room, hugging the wall separating the room from the entrance hall.

She peered into the hall and saw the second guard was only about two feet from her. Pulling her sword out of its scabbard, the woman spun out of the room she was in and thrust the sword into her enemy's heart. He let out a low grunt and she pulled her weapon out of him. The cadaver fell, but she held it before it hit the ground and did to it what she had done to the first guard, then returned.

She ran towards the stairs leading to the second floor, and quickly ascended the steps. When she got to the upper level, she inspected her environment. To her right, a hallway with two doors, and a window at the end. To her right, a longer hallway with several doors, and a door at the end. And in front of her, an even longer hallway, and down that, more hallways. The house was practically a maze. One she had no intention of getting lost in.

She walked down the right hallway, pushing the two doors open. Inside the first one, a beautiful office, with dark wooden walls, desk, floor and closets. An Apple computer sat on the desk, along with several sheets of paper. She closed the door and walked over to the second room, inspecting it. Just a small, dark room, with the mansion owner's old things. Nothing relevant.

She closed the door and walked down the left hallway, pushing doors open as she went. She found nothing inside the large, beautiful rooms except guards, who she quickly disposed of.

Once she got to the last room, she slowly turned the doorknob, but the door wouldn't open. She kneeled in front of the object and pulled out her lockpick, unlocking the door in a matter of seconds. She shoved her tool back into her pocket and opened the door silently.

It was a huge room, with tall wooden walls, large-sized glass windows, a desk in the corner with a computer on it, closets, some for clothes, some with glass doors with artifacts from medieval times inside them. Against the far wall of the room, a four-poster bed with a red cover and white silk sheets. She could see a human form under the covers. Her target.

Jean-Pierre Dupont, 44 years of age. Born in Paris, France. Resides in the French countryside. Multimillionaire. Member of a secret society with a name unknown even to Bill. Bill just knew that the members of that society were interested in him, and he didn't like that. So he decided he would send his Vipers to assassinate some of the members, to tell them to - in Bill's words - "back the fuck off". He would conduct research on the society and its other members after the first target had been eliminated.

The Japanese-Chinese woman advanced towards the bed, unsheathed her katana and slowly pulled back the covers. The man lying on the bed looked exactly like the man in the photo Bill had shown her.

She raised her sword and was about to thrust it into the man's skull when a guard kicked open the door and pointed his pistol at her. Behind him, several other armed guards. Dupont's eyes snapped open and he moved away from her, falling off the edge of the bed.

The guard that had opened the door yelled at his friends to fire. O-Ren narrowed her eyes at them a second before the man spoke.

They didn't stand a chance.

I know this is short, but it's not over yet, so don't worry :P I will continue this soon. And I plan on writing longer chapters. 


	2. Cottonmouth 2

This chap completes O-Ren's assignment (read last chap) and we see Elle for the first time (in this fic at least). I said in the last chapter that the chaps following Elle's assignment would be about Vernita, but I'm not gonna do that. The next chaps are going to be about Vernita, then I'll write the Elle chaps, and then the Bea chaps, and, like I said, MAYBE the Bill and Gogo chaps.

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O-Ren fell to the floor, hearing the bullets fly over her and into the wall. She rolled towards the guards, slicing the feet off of one of them and got up.

She saw Dupont sprint out of the room, followed by some guards. She swung her sword at them, but only managed to slash a guard's back. The men still inside the room screamed as hands holding guns were separated from their arms, legs were cut off of their owner's bodies, eyes were plucked out of their possessor's heads, all sorts of limbs fell on the cold, hard floor, and bodies were turned into nothing more than geysers of blood.

Once she made sure everyone in the room except for her was dead, she dashed out of the room, and down the corridor, following the trail of blood left by the wounded man. She ran down more than a few corridors, never stopping to admire the beautiful artifacts inside their glass stands, or the works of art hanging from the wall. She had a single thing in her mind - eliminate the target.

More armed men ran out doors and down corridors, all after her. A spray of bullets narrowly missed her. She skidded to a halt, spun around, dove to the ground and rolled forward towards her enemies. She got up and started hacking away, and soon, they were nothing but dead bodies, mutilated beyond recognition. She had stained the walls, floor and ceiling with blood, as well as her own clothes. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, letting the metallic smell fill her nostrils. She then smiled.

The woman shook her head and wanted to kick herself in the ass. You're not supposed to get distracted during an assassination. She turned around and sprinted forward, following the trail of blood, which was getting harder to follow with each hallway.

However, that wouldn't be a problem. She soon spotted Dupont and a guard dragging the dying guard along. O-Ren's cut had been deeper than she realized. Well, it's not like it was something she felt bad about. She was glad she'd hurt the man.

The assassin stared into Dupont's eyes for a while, and saw nothing but fear in them. The guard at his side tried to pull him farther away from the woman, but he was frozen with fear. She walked slowly towards the three. The guard pulled a gun and pointed it at her. In a second, he was on the ground, screaming, blood gushing out of his wrist. His hand lay about a foot from him, pistol still in its grip. She raised the sword and swung it down at the man's neck, slicing his head clean off.

The French man backed away from her slowly, until he tripped over the other guard and fell down. She advanced on him slowly, raising her sword.

He took a deep breath, trying to regain his composure, and asked, "Make it quick, ok?"

She narrowed her eyes at him. "You won't feel a thing." A smirk tugged at the corner of her mouth. "Unless I want you to." She brought the sword down, thrusting it into the man's chest. His head hit the ground, blood coming out of his mouth. He wasn't in any pain.

She smiled and twisted the sword. He felt it.

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She walked down the corridor, sword in sheath, leaving blood behind her as she went, the blood on the soles of her shoes left stains on the ground. She walked into the living room to find Bill sitting on the couch, reading a book. He put the book - "The Art of War" - on the coffee table and said to her, "Mission complete, I presume?"

She nodded. He smiled a sweet smile and patted the seat next to him with his hand. O-Ren sat down, and Bill didn't seem to mind one bit that she was getting his white sofa dirty.

He inspected her and said, "Messy kill?"

"Messy kills," she corrected. "The guards were alerted. My guess is one of them spotted a dead body."

Bill thought for a moment, then smiled. "I trust you left no survivors."

She shook her head. He smiled and picked up the book from the table, saying, "You can go now if you want."

She looked at the book and asked, "'The Art of War'? I thought you read that already."

Not looking up from the page he was reading, he said, "Six times actually."

She raised an eyebrow, then shrugged. Bill wasn't the most normal person she knew, so the fact that he had read a book six times and was reading it a seventh didn't surprise her. "Have you found anything about that secret society?"

He looked up from his book and at her. "Not much. Just that they were founded by an English man in China, but it has members all around the world."

She nodded and got up. "I'm going home now," she said. He nodded and she left.

Once she was gone, he put down the book and grabbed his cell phone. He dialed Vernita's number and waited for her to pick up.

"Bill."

"Vernita," he said. "I have an assignment for you."

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NEXT: Copperhead A.K.A. It's My Party And I'll Cry If I Want To 


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